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The debate over conference superiority between the SEC and Big Ten is a discourse that has been hotly-contested, not always civil, and very rarely definitively settled throughout the course of college football history.
With four games between the two conferences, the 2015 bowl season could be one of the best opportunities to settle the debate — if only for a few months before the 2016 season gets underway.
The Big Ten is riding a wave of confidence this season with six teams ranked in the Associated Press Poll, including three in the top-10. The SEC has four ranked teams, conversely, with just one squad among the perceived 10-best in the nation.
The Big Ten East was better this year than the SEC West. There is no justification for putting #Alabama ahead of #MichiganState.
— Mike Greenberg (@Espngreeny) December 6, 2015
How do i not see all these national guys sayin 6-3, Big Ten is lame tweets?? Anti-SEC bias — Chris Vernon (@ChrisVernonShow) December 6, 2015
The conference also met four times in last year’s bowl season, but the matchups didn’t have the same implications or six ranked teams that this year’s slate of postseason games has. The eight teams squaring off against one another this winter have a shared history that includes names such as Peyton Manning, Tim Tebow and Chad Henne, as well as Curt Warner and Herschel Walker. All told, they’ve met five times in bowl contests (three in the Citrus Bowl) with the Big Ten holding a 3-2 advantage.
The SEC beat the Big Ten in its lone matchup this year —a 35-17 win for Alabama over Wisconsin in Week 1 —and has an 84-57-2 all-time edge, 46-28 bowl record against the Big Ten, and have been outscoring them by a 26-23 to margin in their 143 prior meetings.
What happened last year? The Big Ten, the conference with only three squads in ranked in the AP Poll, had the year’s national champion in Ohio State.
But how likely is it that Big Ten will flex its muscles and assert its dominance over their rivals to the south? If history is any indication, it might not be as much as a foregone conclusion as it appears on the surface thanks to a gluttony of ranked teams.
Considering that Alabama is Vegas’ resounding favorite to win it all and the SEC has only four teams ranked in the AP Poll, we could very well be looking at the opposite of last season, in which the SEC had six AP-ranked teams to the Big Ten’s three. What happened? The Big Ten got the last laugh in the end, with Ohio State winning it all.
Here’s look at SEC-Big Ten bowl matchups and the chances that either conference will emerge from the dust as the clear-cut better collection of teams.
No. 3 Michigan State (12-1, 7-1) vs. No. 2 Alabama (12-1, 7-1)
Cotton Bowl/College Football Playoff
Simply put, Alabama’s meeting with Michigan State in the Cotton Bowl is a heavyweight matchup — and the crux for this year’s argument over which conference is superior. Despite a 10-point Vegas line in their favor, many north of the Mason-Dixon line believe the Crimson Tide are an inferior product with an untested quarterback at the helm. The Tide is looking for redemption after being bounced in the inaugural College Football Playoff in the Sugar Bowl byOhio State. Michigan State has been the proverbial bridesmaid of the Big Ten of late and finally gets its shot at the limelight.
The last time Alabama and Michigan State played, the game saw Julio Jones, Mark Ingram, Trent Richardson and Eddie Lacy all score touchdowns in a 49-7 romp in the Capital One Bowl at the end of the 2010 season.
It might as well be ancient history. This will be a battle of defenses with the winner moving on to play in the title game. If either conference wants to assert itself as the best, they need to win their semifinal game…and the next one after that.
No. 12 Northwestern (10-2, 6-2) vs. Tennessee (8-4, 5-3)
Outback Bowl
Tennessee’s late-game collapses have been well-documented this season as the Volunteers struggled to put away opponents late. But Butch Jones squad has righted the ship and enter its Outback Bowl matchup against Northwestern with a five-game winning streak. Tennessee is the favorite in the game, despite the fact that the Wildcats have fewer losses and are ranked No. 12. Northwestern got the season started off on a big note, beating Stanford and holding Heisman finalist Christian McCaffrey to just 65 rushing yards.
Tennessee, it should be noted, beat Iowa last year in the TaxSlayer Bowl behind Joshua Dobbs, who guided the Vols passed C.J. Beathard and Iowa. Beathard and the Hawkeyes took down Northwestern 40-10 earlier this year.
But none of that really matters. This will be a battle of running games, as Tennessee brings its second-ranked rushing attack in the SEC up against the Wildcats run defense, which ranks No. 14 in the nation. A win for either program will go a long way toward validating the victor’s season and will earn another quality notch on the conference’s belt. Tennessee and Northwestern last met in 1997 Citrus Bowl, when Peyton Manning easily disposed of Steve Schnur and Darnell Autry for the win.
Michigan (9-3, 6-2) vs. Florida (10-3, 7-1)
Citrus Bowl
The Citrus Bowl is he only contest between the SEC and Big Ten this season where the Big Ten team is favored. Michigan, favored by four points, and Florida have each had banner years that resurrected their programs under first-year coaches, but tough losses and occasional struggles cost them both chances at any larger prizes.
The two squads have met twice in bowl games (2003 Outback, 2008 Capital One) with the Wolverines claiming both of them, including a win over the aforementioned Tebow in the Jan. 1, 2008 game.
Michigan gets a Florida team that’s struggling to put up points behind a Treon Harris-led Gators offense that sputtered to the finish line, ranking No. 109 in the nation. Michigan’s offense is middling at best, meaning this contest comes down to two of the more dynamic defenses in the country — which rank No. 4 (Michigan) and No. 6 in the FBS.
The Big Ten needs to win this game to have a chance to uproot SEC as the nation’s perceived top conference.
Penn State (7-5, 4-4) vs. Georgia (9-3, 5-3)
TaxSlayer Bowl
If we get a game like we did in the 1983 Sugar Bowl – where two of the greatest running backs of the 1980s in Herschel Walker and Curt Warner butted heads – then we’re in for a treat when Georgia and Penn State square off in the TaxSlayer Bowl.
Penn State claimed the national title with the win over the Bulldogs, but it should be noted that the Nittany Lions were still an independent back then and not representing the Big Ten.
This year’s matchup pits two squads that had hopes for contending for their respective divisions, but fell short with some bad losses and no discernable big wins. While the Bulldogs enter the game with a four-game win streak that somewhat salvaged their season – albeit at the cost of their head coach Mark Richt – Penn State coasts into Jacksonville for the bowl on the fumes of a three-game slide. As a result, Georgia, interim coach and all, is a 7-point favorite over the Nittany Lions.
Chris Wuensch is a contributing writer for Saturday Down South. He covers South Carolina and Tennessee.
